Posted in: Video Games

Among the new additions to the Tomb Raider gameplay formula is skill management. In this game Lara posses three different types of skills, related to the three main aspects of the game: surviving, hunting and fighting. The skills are really diverse and all serve a certain, useful purpose: leveling them up will be bring some good advantages whenever you level them up. In the end it all depends on your playstyle: some gamers may be better and uncovering treasures and areas or discovering enemies while some other may be better in the combat sequences of the game. You can improve these skills to improve your abilities in your best field or get some help in some other field where you are not so good. We’re not talking about role playing game level of customization but having a choice is better than having none at all! The inclusion of skills also makes the gameplay experience somewhat deeper. To improve your skills you’ll have to fill Lara’s experience shield, obtaining a single skill point used to improve unlocked skills or unlocking new skills. You will have to invest 7 skill points in rookie skills to unlock the higher tier; to unlock the final tier, seven more points must be used. Get as much experience as you can and you will be able to unlock most skills in the game as soon as possible.

Brawler Skills

Axe Expert

Ace Expert is a hardened skill allowing Lara to perform some stealth kills using the pry axe, removing the usual QTE used to perfom stealth kills. This is an incredibly nice skill if you like to play stealthy: with the Quick Time Event no longer required to perform stealth kills, there’s no chance to miss them by mistake. However this is not a skill you want to learn before some others like the main growth skills enhancing your EXP gain for the most basic actions and the skills increasing your ammo capacity. This one is a good skill but not essential at all: remember that enemies are finite except for the final area and grinding experience will become harder once you killed most of them. You can use the Chasm Ziggurat to learn all the skills but at the end of the game you probably won’t have much use for most of them anyway.